Chap. 10. 



STATE OF SOCIETY. 



217 



BREAK-WATER. 



PROJECTED RAIL-ROADS. 



BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 



"The Break-water is located 1000 feet 

 from the central wharf in Burling-ton, and 

 a tolerable idea of its form and position 

 may be obtained from the diagram : 



1000 feat from end of 



The work presents a line of 900 feet in 

 length, resting upon a firm and even bot- 

 tom, at a depth of from 30 to 32 feet below 

 the surface of the water on the interior 

 side. It consists of 9 cribs, each 100 feet 

 long, and 5U feet wide at the bottom, di- 

 minishing to 35 at the surface of the water, 

 having all the slope (making an angle of 

 about 65 degrees with the horizon,) on the 

 interior side, the exterior being perpen- 

 dicular. The cribs are constructed of 

 hemlock timber as high as the surface of 

 the water, above which they are of white 

 pine, and rise perpendicularly on both 

 sides to the additional height of 8 feet, 

 making the whole height of the work 40 

 feet. The timbers are firmly interlocked 

 and doweled with 2^ inch white oak tree- 

 nails, and the cribs filled in a solid manner 

 with stone and covered with gravel. Of 

 the 900 feet put down, 800 are completed, 

 and in its present unfinished state, it af- 

 fords important protection to the shipping 

 •of the lake during the prevalence of our 

 strong northwest and southwest winds. 

 When completed to the extent contem- 

 plated, (2,000 feet in length,) it will pro- 

 vide a safe and smooth anchorage around 

 and in front of the wharves, where the 

 shipping, of the lake may ride with safety 

 in the most tempestuous weather. The 

 cost of the whole work is estimated at 

 $150,000, and there remains to be con- 

 structed 1,100 feet in length to complete 

 it. Congress has appropriated $70,000 

 for the work which has been laid out, and 

 the work is now suspended till further 

 appropriations shnll be made." 



A similar work has been for several 

 years in progress at Plattsburgh for the 

 protection of the harbor at that place. 

 Pt. II. 28 



Section VII.* 

 Benevolent Institutions. 



The voluntary associations for literary, 

 scientific, benevolent and other purposes, 

 which have, from time to time, been form- 

 ed in Vermont, exhibit a pleasing view of 

 the character and disposition of the peo- 

 ple. Social libraries and lyceums, de- 

 signed for mutual improvement, are sus- 

 tained in many of our towns, and, where 

 prudently managed, they have been found 

 to exert a favorable influence upon the 

 neighborhoods in which they are situated. 

 Besides these which are local and for the 

 most part temporary institutions, we have 

 several other associations, which are of a 

 more general and permanent character. 

 We shall here briefly notice the follow- 

 ing : 



The Vermont Bible Society. — This socie- 

 ty was organized on the 28th of October, 



* It, was our intention to insert in this place a 

 section upon roads and turnpikes, embracing some 

 account of proposed canals and railroads within 

 the state ; but as other matters have already 

 swelled this part of our work much beyond our 

 calculations, we shall pass them by with only a 

 few remarks. From about (he lime of the com- 

 pletion of the great Western, and the Champlain 

 and Hudson canal in the stale of New York, tho 

 subject of canals excited considerable attention in 

 this slate for a number ofyears, and some surveys 

 were made at the expense of the general govern- 

 ment for the purpose of ascertaining their practi- 

 cability, but nothing further was done, till canals 

 come to be surpeceded, in the public estimation, 

 by rail-roach. This took place about 1830, and 

 from that period rail-roads were the general topic 

 for some time, and several new surveys were 

 made for the purpose of ascertaining the best pla- 

 ces for their location. The principal rail-roads, 

 which have been proposed, aie the following, viz : 

 from the south line of the state along the valley of 

 the Connecticut and Passump?ic to Canada line, 

 near lake Memphremagog — from Burlington along 

 the valley of the Winooski to Connecticut river — 

 from Bennington to Brattleboro — from Rutland to 

 AVhitehall — from Rutland to Connecticut river — 

 and from Vergennes to Bristol. Separate com- 

 panies were incorporated as early as 1835, for 

 carrying' all these into effect, but neither of them 

 has yet been commenced. With all our talk, and 

 our canal and rail-road conventions, we have not, 

 (with the exception of a few cuts by the falls oflh« 

 Connecticut,) a single rod of canal or rail-road 

 within the state. The connexion of Boston with 

 the valley of lake Champlain by the continuation 

 of the Lowell and Concord rail-road, is an object 

 of vast importance to our stale and is one, which 

 will, doubtless, in time, be accomplished ; and 

 when completed, through the whole distance, we 

 believe that, at reasonable rates for transportation, 

 the stock invested would be sufficiently produc- 

 tive. 



